Alliance Storage Technologies Said to Secure Future of Plasmon UDO

Alliance Storage Technologies, Inc. (ASTI) became the owner and exclusive manufacturer of Plasmon brand technologies in January 2009 and announces key programs and operational capabilities that enable it to address the market need for trusted long-term archival storage with professional Ultra Density Optical (UDO) solutions.

"ASTI worked very closely with Plasmon over the past ten years as a sales and service provider of optical technology for archival applications," said Chris Carr, ASTI CEO and President. "When Plasmon ran into financial difficulty late last year, we were motivated to buy the intellectual property and assets, and re-engage with professionals who feel our passion for the technology. There are over 17,000 installations of UDO technology that are not only depending on our software and firmware support to extend the value and life of their original technology investment, but want us to enhance their products and develop next generation solutions. UDO media enables archival data retention for 50+ years on a secure, reliable and permanent archive. If ASTI did not acquire the Plasmon UDO technology, customers would have been forced to go to less reliable, more expensive and less environmentally-friendly alternatives. Today we are announcing key milestones in re-establishing the business and technical operations under the ASTI banner and re-engagement with key channel partners, technical services, and ISV communities where UDO has been and will continue to be an integral part of their business and value proposition to customers," said Carr.

Since acquiring Plasmon intellectual property and assets, ASTI has re-established:

Manufacturing of the UDO Drives, Archive Appliance and G-Series Library systems; G Enterprise, Gx Series, Archive Appliance NAS systems and AAE.
Continued support of D Series, M Series, and 12 inch drives and library systems.
Supply chain for parts and materials to support manufacturing, repair services, new parts and upgrades for all the above supported systems.
Media manufacturing, for UDO1 and UDO2 (WORM & R/W). Other media available include 5.25-inch MO and 12-inch media types.
Archive Appliance software development resources in the UK (former Plasmon PLC employees), actively developing new releases and enhancements.
Customer Service Level 1, 2 & 3 technical support for all Plasmon products. Customers under contract with ASTI are receiving support from a team with many years of experience with the Plasmon product line.
Worldwide on-site maintenance service network for all Plasmon libraries. ASTI has expanded its service network to include several authorized maintenance service organizations across the globe to provide support for Plasmon products.
Authorized Service Provider (ASP) Program: ASTI has established an ASP Program to ensure customers receiving third party maintenance services are fully backed by ASTI and will have access to factory parts, comprehensive training and certification, ASTI technical support, new firmware and software releases, product documentation and utilities.
Channel Partner & ISV Programs: ASTI has re-engaged with over 100 Value Added Resellers and Systems Integrators worldwide, as well as key storage software and hardware vendor partners.
ISO 9001 Certification and vendor certifications from key partners